Rolls Royce

The first Phantom of the modern era (i.e. owned by BMW) was launched in 2003, so a refresh might be thought overdue. Rolls-Royce does nothing in hurry, however - it would be unseemly - so after suitable thought and deliberation, the Geneva Motor Show finally sees the launch of the Series ll Phantoms. Subtle changes and enhancements have been applied to all four models in the range; the Saloon (sedan), The Extended Wheelbase limo, the two-door Coupe and the two-door Coupe Drophead convertible, though you would have to be pretty eagle-eyed to spot them. Read More

Each year the Goodwood Festival of Speed hosts an auction by Bonhams, and due to the importance of the event and the unique crowd it draws, the best come out to play. This year there are two stand-outs going under the hammer: the first is the 1912 Rolls-Royce Double Pullman Limousine (estimated GBP2,000,000/US$3,147,000) which was reproduced in the popular Corgi Classics series of widely circulated die-cast toy cars, the second being the personal 1938 Type 57C of the Ettore Bugatti, lovingly built for Le Patron by his staff. Read More

It's been bent, scraped along the runway, frozen to -42 degrees C, flown over 1700 flights and spent almost 5000 hours in the air - now the 787 Dreamliner has completed the final flight tests required for type certification with Rolls-Royce engines. Read More

The Quail Lodge sale held during Pebble Beach Car Week in August each year, always attracts extraordinary automobiles, and this year, the most talked about lot at the auction is one of the most delightfully eccentric for many a year. It is a handmade 1925 Rolls-Royce New Phantom, commissioned by the Maharaja of Kotah to be specifically built for tiger hunting. The eight liter Roller has spotlights for night hunting, a mounted Howdah gun (double-barrel shotgun in pistol form), a rifle stand in the rear passenger compartment, a mountable Lantaka cannon, and a machine gun mounted on an attached, matching trailer. Just the thing for peak hour! Read More

One of the most anticipated commercial airplanes in recent years made an appearance at the 49th Paris Airshow this week. The first flight-test 787 Dreamliner (ZA001) spent two days on static display on the tarmac at Le Bourget and will take a short tour through Europe before returning to the U.S. Read More

Unlike many of the concept cars we see at auto shows that are dummied up with clay, smoke and mirrors, Rolls Royce has always pursued an entirely different philosophy, building fully functioning “experimental vehicles.” Each such car is meticulously hand-built to investigate how the potential production model will operate in real world conditions. The first such vehicle (1EX) was constructed in 1919, predating the 1938 Buick Y-Job (often claimed to be the world’s first concept car) by almost two decades. The “Torpedo” styled 10EX was built in 1926 as a sports car version of the Phantom 1 and after many modifications, lapped Brooklands at an average speed of 91.2 mph. Most importantly, it stayed in the company as a staff car and occasional celebrity courtesy car for six years, being driven by many people of note, such as Lawrence of Arabia who once borrowed it for a European trip. Apart from being exquisitely beautiful, 10EX was one of the world’s first concept cars, has a splendorous and meticulously documented provenance, and … it’s for sale. Read More

The MINI INSPIRED BY GOODWOOD has little to do with the Goodwood Festival of Speed, for which the small pocket of Southern England is best known. Goodwood is also the location of the Rolls-Royce Design division, and now that Germany's BMW owns both British marques, it is using the brand values of Rolls Royce to craft an unmistakably upmarket, limited edition MINI by using Rolls Royce materials and craftsmanship. Read More

Electrifying the Rolls-Royce was no simple matter. Luxury vehicle buyers in the EUR200,000 ++ segment know what they want – sumptuous comfort and effortless acceleration. Retaining Rolls Royce clientele is obviously paramount, so as the first pure electric car in the top-shelf segment, it's interesting to see what a brand with such stellar values has done. An aluminium space frame keeps weight down and the biggest automobile battery pack ever – 71 kWh – still only offers a range of 200 kilometers. Twin watercooled 145 kW electric motors offer a total 290 kW, which is less than the 338 kW Phantom 6.75-litre V12, but with even nicer power characteristics – a flat 800 Nm mid-range versus the peak 720Nm @3500 rpm of the V12. The range could be the limiting factor because everything else looks excellent. Read More

Rolls-Royce, one of the most enduring brands of automotive excellence, is developing a fully electric Phantom. The 102EX experimental vehicle will be shown in Geneva on March 1, and will tour Europe, the Middle East, Asia and North America this year to evaluate the opinions of its key stakeholders. The brand is launching a special web site which will be used to deliver information about the vehicle, the tour and to elicit stakeholder response. Read More

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program continues to rack up the milestones with the F-35B short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) variant breaking the sound barrier for the first time. The F-35B, which completed its first vertical landing in March, hit Mach 1.07 (727 miles per hour) in an off-shore test on June 10 and will be put through a series of supersonic flights that will gradually take the aircraft towards its top speed of Mach 1.6. The F-35B STOVL marks the first time in 100 years of military aviation that a plane has combined radar-evading stealth, VTOL and supersonic speed and may go some way towards justifying the program's other milestone achievement of being the most expensive weapons program in military history. Read More